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arXiv:1409.4916 · Physical Review B

Topologically distinct critical theories emerging from the bulk entanglement spectrum of integer quantum Hall states on a lattice

Qiong Zhu, Xin Wan, Guang-Ming Zhang

Published Dec 22, 2014• 6 citations
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Abstract

The critical theories for the topological phase transitions of integer quantum Hall states to a trivial insulating state with the same symmetry can be obtained by calculating the ground state entanglement spectrum under a symmetric checkerboard bipartition. In contrast to the gapless edge excitations under the left-right bipartition, a quantum network with bulk gapless excitations naturally emerges without fine tuning. On a large finite lattice, the resulting critical theory for the $\ensuremath{\nu}=1$ state is the (2 + 1)-dimensional relativistic quantum field theory characterized by a single Dirac cone spectrum and a pair of fractionalized zero-energy states, while for the $\ensuremath{\nu}=2$ state the critical theory exhibits a parabolic spectrum and no sign of fractionalization in the zero-energy states. A triangular correspondence is established among the bulk topological theory, gapless edge theory, and the critical theory via the ground state entanglement spectrum.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.90.235134

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The critical theories for the topological phase transitions of integer quantum Hall states to a trivial insulating state with the same symmetry can be obtained by calculating the ground state entanglement spectrum under a symmetric checkerboard bipartition. In contrast to the gapless edge excitations under the left-right bipartition, a quantum network with bulk gapless excitations naturally emerges without fine tuning. On a large finite lattice, the resulting critical theory for the \ensuremathν=1\ensuremath{\nu}=1\ensuremathν=1 state is the (2 + 1)-dimensional relativistic quantum field theory characterized by a single Dirac cone spectrum and a pair of fractionalized zero-energy states, while for the \ensuremathν=2\ensuremath{\nu}=2\ensuremathν=2 state the critical theory exhibits a parabolic spectrum and no sign of fractionalization in the zero-energy states. A triangular correspondence is established among the bulk topological theory, gapless edge theory, and the critical theory via the ground state entanglement spectrum.
A quantum phase transition is usually achieved by tuning physical parameters in a Hamiltonian at zero temperature. Here, we show that the ground state of a topological phase itself encodes critical properties of its transition to a trivial phase. To extract this information, we introduce an extensive partition of the system into two subsystems both of which extend throughout the bulk in all directions. The resulting bulk entanglement spectrum has a low-lying part that resembles the excitation spectrum of a bulk Hamiltonian, which allows us to probe a topological phase transition from a single wave function by tuning either the geometry of the partition or the entanglement temperature. As an example, this remarkable correspondence between the topological phase transition and the entanglement criticality is rigorously established for integer quantum Hall states.
Under an appropriate symmetric bulk bipartition in a one-dimensional symmetry protected topological phase with the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki matrix product state wave function for the odd integer spin chains, a bulk critical entanglement spectrum can be obtained, describing the excitation spectrum of the critical point separating the topological phase from the trivial state with the same symmetry. Such a critical point is beyond the standard Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm for symmetry-breaking phase transitions. Recently, the framework of matrix product states for topological phases with Majorana fermions/parafermions has been established. Here we first generalize these fixed-point matrix product states with the zero correlation length to the more generic ground-state wave functions with a finite correlation length for the general one-dimensional interacting Majorana fermion/parafermion systems. Then we employ the previous method to decode quantum criticality to the interacting Majorana fermion/parafermion matrix product states. The obtained quantum critical spectra are described by the conformal field theories with central charge $c\ensuremath{\le}1$, characterizing the quantum critical theories separating the fermionic/parafermionic topological phase from the trivial phases with the same symmetry.
Under an appropriate symmetric extensive bipartition in a one-dimensional symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase, a bulk critical-entanglement spectrum can be obtained, resembling the excitation spectrum of the critical point separating the SPT phase from the trivial (vacuum) state. Such a critical point is beyond the standard Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm for symmetry-breaking phase transitions. For the S=1S=1S=1 SPT (Haldane) phase with the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki exact wave function, the resulting critical-entanglement spectrum has a residual entropy per lattice site sr=0.67602{s}_{r}=0.67602sr​=0.67602, showing a delocalized version of the edge excitations in the SPT phase. From the wave function corresponding to the lowest entanglement energy level, the central charge of the critical point can be extracted $c\ensuremath{\approx}1.01\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01$. The critical theory can be identified as the same effective field theory as the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain or the spin-1/2 Haldane-Shastry model with inverse-square long-range interaction.
The deconfined quantum critical point, a prototype Landau-forbidden transition, could exist, in principle, in the phase transitions involving a symmetry-protected topological phase; however, examples of such kinds of transitions in physical systems are rare beyond one-dimensional systems. Here, using a density-matrix renormalization-group calculation, we unveil a bosonic integer quantum Hall phase in a two-dimensional correlated honeycomb lattice, by full identification of its internal structure from the topological K\mathbf{K}K matrix. Moreover, we demonstrate that imbalanced periodic chemical potentials can destroy the bosonic integer quantum Hall state and drive it into a featureless trivial (Mott) insulator, where all physical observables evolve smoothly across the critical point. At the critical point, the entanglement entropy reveals a characteristic scaling behavior, which is consistent with the critical field theory as an emergent QED3{\mathrm{QED}}_{3}QED3​ with two flavors of Dirac fermions.
We substantiate a complete picture of the ``bulk-edge correspondence'' conjecture for topological phases. By studying the eigenstates in the entanglement spectrum for both the ideal and realistic Coulomb ground states of the fractional quantum Hall system, it is verified that the eigenstates in the universal part of the entanglement spectrum purely lie in the Hilbert space of the edge excitations projected onto the physical Hilbert space of the subsystem itself. Hence, not only are the eigenlevels in the entanglement spectrum in one-to-one correspondence with the eigenenergies of an effective dynamical edge Hamiltonian, but all the eigenstates are confirmed to be the actual (projected) edge excitations of the subsystem. This result also reveals the possibility of extracting the full information of the edge excitations from the state of the subsystem reduced from a geometric cut of the pure ground state of the total system in topological phases.
A common feature of topological phases of matter is the fractionalization of the quantum number in their low-energy excitations. Such information is encoded in their ground state wave functions, but emerges in the bipartite entanglement spectra. The symmetric extensive bipartition is an effective novel method to create deconfined fractionalized edge particles in the reduced subsystem, which lead to quantum critical behavior associated with the transition from the topological phase to its adjacent trivial phase. Here we report the interesting results revealed by applying this method to the one-dimensional SO(5) symmetric valence-bond solid state being a spin-2 symmetry protected topological phase. From the finite-size entanglement spectrum, we find the lowest level to be an SO(5) singlet with a logarithmic entanglement entropy. Surprisingly, the first excited level is also an SO(5) singlet and the spectral gap scales with the subsystem size as ${L}_{A}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\nu}}$ with $\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\simeq}1.978$. In the thermodynamic limit, a novel quantum criticality emerges with SO(5) spinons and their four-body singlet bound states as elementary excitations, hence ruling out the possibility of being described by a conformal field theory. Moreover, the entanglement Hamiltonian can be determined as an SO(5) symmetric nearest neighbor spin-3/2 quadruple-quadruple interaction with a negative coupling. Our work thus demonstrates the power of this new method in the study of quantum criticality encoded in the topological ground states.